Southern Maine College field hockey 2 at UMass.-Dartmouth 1

NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Junior Tayla Smedberg scored a pair of late second half goals to lead the University of Southern Maine Huskies to a 2-1 win over the UMass Dartmouth Corsairs in a Little East Conference field hockey game Saturday afternoon.

With the win, Southern Maine halts a three-game slide and improves to 4-5 overall and 3-2 in the Little East. The loss is the fourth straight for the Corsairs who are now 2-7 overall and 1-4 in the Little East.

UMD took a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute when sophomore Mary Brown (Leicester, Mass.) tucked in a goal after collecting a rebound off of a save. With few scoring chances on either side of the ball in the first half, the Corsairs 1-0 lead stood until the break.

The Corsairs started the second half with a flurry of offensive activity outshooting Southern Maine 7-0 in the first seven minutes and out-cornering USM 2-0, but Husky senior goalkeeper Amanda Kasbohm continued her strong play in net making all seven saves. The Huskies recorded their first offensive statistic – a penalty corner – in the 47th minute, and scored their first goal of the game on just its fifth shot of the game in the 53rd minute. Smedberg notched the equalizer after poking the ball through the Corsair defense and scoring her third goal of the season.

Smedberg recorded her fourth goal of the season and her second game-winner of 2016 in the 64th minute. Senior Michaela Demers fed Smedberg with a long pass from the top of the circle and Smedberg beat Corsair goalkeeper sophomore Ariel St. Germaine to the left.

Kasbohm finished the game making 11 saves to earn the win for USM. St. Germaine made one save in the loss. UMD outshot USM 14-6 for the game and 10-4 for the second half. UMD also had a 7-3 lead in penalty corners.